Sunday, September 26, 2010

Stansberry, Domenic: The Big Boom

The return of the large-nosed PI, Dante Mancuso, who is asked to find a former sweetheart, daughter of an old San FranciscanItalian family. She is found dead and the novel unfolds in a series of short, sometimes, disconnected chapters with the ending of the dot.com boom as background and, as it turns out, the reason behind the girl's death. A pleasant read whichmanages to convey both the breaking down of old neighbourhoods and the slump following the boom - as one character puts it: "You think abour something long enough, you imagine it, after a while it does exist. You bring it into being." He continues by saying that the aim is to hang on to centure capital until the idea becomes real and thereby hangs the motive for the various killings. Not one of my favourites but readable.